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Recent Storms Take Toll On Md. Waterways

BALTIMORE (WJZ)–The aftermath of Maryland’s recent storms continues to take its toll on local bays and coastlines.

Monique Griego has more on how people are trying to clean things up.

Once the sky cleared, the aftermath of recent storms washed up on shore.

“Somebody lost a shoe, and a tire, and some metal strapping. We found a kid’s slide earlier today,” said Vikki Spruill.

Spruill, from Ocean Conservancy, is one of hundreds of volunteers who gloved up and grabbed a bag at Fort Smallwood Park. They didn’t mind sacrificing a Saturday to help clear the debris and trash-lined coast.

Volunteers come out to the shoreline every year to clean it up, but because of the recent storms, there’s even more trash than usual.

“The currents are stronger with the wind and rain and it blows and pushes everything down and up to the shores,” Spruill said.

For now the beach is closed and the water isn’t safe.

“We almost couldn’t have this cleanup today because sewer problems in the water,” Spruill said. “You can see it.”

Further out in the Bay, things don’t look much better.

All the damage is easy to spot for even the smallest helper.

“It makes me feel really sad,” said a volunteer.

So bag after bag, volunteers are doing their best to get rid of all the stuff wind and rain brought from land to sea to shore.

“It’s wonderful to see people coming out here and just using their own hands to help solve a problem,” said a volunteer.

But even with all their help, it will be awhile before the Bay is back to normal.

Some of the volunteers were groups from Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. They expected to pick-up a few thousand pounds of trash.